Just playing with blocks....?

Preschool seems to be the hot button item right now. There is talk of making preschools mandatory for all, but is this completely necessary. Many of my friends went to preschool for a year or two before entering kindergarten. however, I also have several friends that didn't go to preschool as well, and they don't seem any worse for the wear. Although I think that preschool provides a good way to get kids socialized, I think that is the only benefit it really offers. Kids at that age (3-4 year olds) really don't need to be learning the skills they will be learning in kindergarten. This causes repetition within the classroom, the teachers have to reteach those skills to everyone because not everyone has gone to preschool. So this then calls into question, whether we make preschool mandatory, or we just get rid of it completely. I propose that we don't have preschool at all, we need to give kids a childhood instead. Let kids be kids a little longer and let the kindergarten be the place where they learn the basic skills they need. This is not to say that kids should just be at home until kindergarten, kids still need to be socialized but this could be done through daycare, play groups or just in the neighborhoods.